Snubbed by the boy, he bids for the man: How long till Moyes learn the bitter truth?

David Moyes’ laughable offer to buy Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona seems an exercise more in defiance of Thiago Alcantara than a serious bid to shore up his deficient midfield options.

Everything about the offer reeks of a spiteful attempt at paying Barcelona, Pep Guardiola and Alcantara back for the recent snub in the Thiago transfer saga rather than a serious-minded attempt to sign an accomplished midfielder who has enjoyed a relatively successful time at arguably the best club in the world in this decade and who is guaranteed to blossom in the next few years as Xavi Hernandez’s inevitable retirement approaches.

But that is the good news. Bidding for Fabregas just for spite, though petty, would indicate that Moyes does not have his head in the clouds and he can be practical enough to move to realistic targets, so no; that is not the bad news. The bad news will be if Moyes actually means business in his ill-fated pursuit of a target that could never be a Manchester United player. A player that painstakingly schemed and even partly financed a move to Barcelona just a few years back and who can’t be said to be having a bad time at the club even if his experience has been less than exemplary. A player on whom Arsenal (the club where he was nurtured to stardom and who were gracious enough to grant him a transfer to Barca) still has the first option to buy-back and whose move anywhere than Arsenal will represent a sizeable loss of half his transfer fee to Barca. How on earth is this move supposed to happen?

Liverpool’s utterly abject transfer history in the last few years is something to learn from. A transfer history that gradually aided their slide into oblivion until halted by the arrival of first Kenny Daglish and presently Brendan Rodgers which has seen their stock steadily rise in recent years is a painful reminder of what a manager without experience at the highest level can do to a club’s legacy. The more they dabble experimentally in the market, the more they destroy the team harmony and any legacy of their predecessors. How long it will take for Moyes to learn that no player worth his salt will presently work for him at least until he proves himself over a couple of months is anyone’s guess but it is at least heartening that he has not gone the way of Roy Hodgson in recruiting every Tom, Dick and Konchesky available for a bargain.